1. Defining and tracking learning goals

Instructor's learning goal for the evaluated class session or assignment

Have students apply real-world examples to the economic concept(s) being addressed that day through discussion

Have students recognize that their experience is relevant and they actually have lots of knowledge

Instructor's teaching goals for the evaluated class:

How does the instructor manage student initiated "diversions" (off-topic comments)?

At least one way that this learning goal is helping the instructor define his or her teaching

Engaging non-traditional students in higher education

Encouraging learning as a fun and approachable thing, and appropriate to their lives

Pride in working class experience, reflected in economic thought.

Collecting data about her students in the manner described below will allow Dory to see which sections of her class are soliciting the most student-led discussions/examples.

**Measuring the teaching goal above will help Dory gain data about the range of strategies she is currently using to manage student initiated diversions.

Instructor's vision of how students will step towards that goal

participate in class discussion

offer their own examples

transition to student-led discussion, or at least not just call-and-response

Observer's understanding of what exactly he or she is tracking

As an observer of Dory's class I will be taking a written record of how she responds to/manages student initiated diversions. This will be measured by enumerating the number of times this happens (and Dory's response) on a pre-prepared table.

As an observer of Dory's class, I will be tracking (via pre-prepared map/tally sheet), the number of times that her students:

A) offer examples of their own: count only what number of students do this (as opposed to how many times each student does this).

B) actively steer the direction of class discussion: more than 2 student exchanges before the instructor has to enter the conversation again.

C) participate in class discussion: proportion of the class that does this per activity/section of the class, in order to gauge which activities solicit most student participation.

Observer's understanding of how the tracked session or assignment will be measured

We will pre-prepare a record keeping sheet (table) that will track the following information about Dory, via tally:

How many times a student-led distraction occurs

What Dory's response is to the distraction

We will pre-prepare a record keeping sheet (map) that will track the following information about students, via tally/symbols:

Number of times a new student participates / overall: how many different students participated

Number of times a student offers their own example

Number of times discussion is student-initiated

Maria will print 3 copies of the map, and use one for each of the three main segments of class in order to compare students engagement across activities.

Classroom map for Observer Tallying:(Students will have table cards or stickers with their ID #)

teagle observation map oct 2014-01.jpg

(To be printed 3x in letter size!)

Distraction and Response Tally Sheet

Type of Student Distraction

Dory'sResponse

Did this get the class back on track?Y/N

Asking personal questions of DK

Asking a question about homework or attendance in the middle of a lesson